Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology has enabled users to transmit voice conversations over a data network using Internet Protocol (IP). This is facilitated by digitizing voice into discrete packets that are transferred independently over the network, instead of traditional circuit-committed protocols of the PSTN.
Initially, VOIP technology was limited to Personal Computers (PC) with a hard-wired connection to the Internet. However, as wireless networking technology has advanced, such VOIP capabilities have expanded to cellular telephones and other wireless devices. VOIP has offered many benefits including, for example, free or reduced fees related to conventional telephone calls over an analog network.
Because VOIP is based on the Internet infrastructure, voice communications are susceptible to eavesdropping, just as other Internet based transactions are. As in the case of standard data transfer over the Internet, efforts have been made to secure VOIP transactions from interference or receipt by unauthorized users. One such effort has been significantly successful in achieving this objective. The U.S. government developed Secure Communication Interoperability Protocol (SCIP) is a proven method for securing VOIP transmissions. However, prior art communications devices that were SCIP operational, required specifically configured hardware in order to utilize the protocol. In other words, an individual wishing to conduct secure VOIP was required to purchase a specific mobile communications device, or add additional hardware to an additional device. Accordingly, such a solution was not only costly, but did not afford the user to select a communications device of choice.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for enabling secure VOIP communications without requiring specialized hardware. Specifically, there is a need to provide secure VOIP to users of existing communications devices that are not equipped with the hardware configurations required to facilitate secure VOIP communications by way of SCIP or similar protocols.